Testing Brittany Howard’s Music Knowledge

- Introduce yourself. - I'm Brittany Howard of the Alabama Shakes. - What's going on? - Oh, you know. Just running around town. Meet nice folks like yourself. - You like coming here? - Yeah, of course. - No place like New York. - I'm gonna play some songs. - Okay. - And you have to tell me who the artist is. - Let's do it. - I don't know what to play you. - I have like a couple ideas, but I think we should just go all over the place. - Okay, let's see if my brain's online today. (laughing) ♪ How do you know ♪ - It's already sounding like Sly. - Yep. - Oh. - Yeah, that's a layer of ground for sure. - Tell me about Sly and the Family Stone. - I consider Sly and the Family Stone to be one of the greatest bands that's ever existed. Right behind Earth, wind and fire. - Right behind. - Yeah, I love Earth, wind and fire, but Sly and the Family Stone, that's the band I've always wanted to be like. That's it right there. - Why do you think the '70s was just so good? - I think culturally, socially, there's so much going on in the world. And I think the base level of what you needed to do to be good was so high. The bar was so high, you had to outfunk the funkiest. You know what I'm saying? You had to outgroove the grooviest. I just can't get enough of it. It's still where I go to when I think of my greatest favoritest musicians and teachers. - Okay, cool '60s. We learned some cool stuff. You guys did it. Let's just go to the next level. - It might have been the drugs too. - It might have been. - I don't know, I wasn't there. - One for one. (upbeat music) ♪ I'm an alligator ♪ ♪ I'm a mama, mama coming for you ♪ - David Bowie, didn't even scare me, didn't phase me. They almost got into an accident. - Oh shit. - So I was phased. She almost ran into the fire truck. - Oh shit, I missed it. - 'Cause you were locked in. - I was locked into that taking start-up. - You were locked in. - Who named Daydream? - Come on. - Yeah, I feel like David Bowie comes into every teenager's life and tells them it's okay to be free, to be a little weird, to be a little freaky, be a little cookie. Like it's all good to be yourself. He encourages it. And that's one thing I think is iconic about David Bowie that will always live on. I don't think there's anything like him. I know that a lot of times he was trying to emulate music that he liked, but when he filtered through him, it was something just completely new, completely fresh. - He's like a prism. - He's giant light into him and then blasts off into a million different colors. - Yeah, any type of music could go through him. - You got it, dude. Like you don't know what to expect. He could really do anything. I mean, the man, the myth of legend right there. Nobody liked him. - Two for two. - This is fun. - You wanna listen to a do-op song? (upbeat music) - Run around sue, Dion. - Dion. - Dion. (singing in foreign language) - Yes, run around sue, Ruby, baby. That's Dion. Dion was kind of funky. Like he had like a little, and I don't know where he got it from. But he had a little swerve to him. - Yeah, he did. - That's somebody me and my grandma called Nana. Me and my Nana used to love listening to Dion. Her name was Ruby, and she swore to God that when she was 15 years old that song came out, "Ruby Baby" by Dion. (singing in foreign language) - She was like, he's writing it about me. He's gonna marry me. That's what I'm gonna be with. And I was like, but you didn't know. - You know how hot Dion was? - I don't really look at him that way. - Me neither. I don't even know what he looks like. - I don't know. - But I just know that he was hot. - You can hear it. - He knew he had it. - He said, "Eeeeeee." (laughing) - Dion was another kind of sex, 50 sexy. - Yes. - You know what him girls were fighting. - Crazy. - And Elvis came and he was like, sit down Dion. - Yeah, who's Dion? That's what happened. - This one's really good too. - Dang it, dang it, dang it, all ding, ding. (singing in foreign language) - Give me a second. - This will be a pull. - I had this album hold on. The platters, the more sales. - The more sales. - The thing is, there's so many of these groups. - There's a lot of people going boom, the boom, the bop, the bop, the bing, the bing, bing. - You know what I mean? - Still hits, 20, 26, still a hit. - It does hit. - It hits even more now than ever. - Yeah, we gotta bring that back. - Do you have to bring it back? - The groups. - Yeah. - Bop, da, da, bing, da, bing, bang. We need more of that. (singing in foreign language) - We can start it right here on the street. - Oh, what's next? (singing in foreign language) - Have a cigar. - Have a cigar. - Pink Floyd. Where did them British boys get? All that funk, Pink Floyd was pivotal to my education as a songwriter because I was 14 years old. I was in the back of an oldsmobile. My older friend was taking me home. She was so cool, she had a car. And she put Pink Floyd on. And I was like, what's this? I didn't know all these different types of music to go together like that. I didn't know you could do like Prague and funk and jazz and the same band. And it really opened my eyes to genreless possibilities. - They did this, I think like 50 of the anniversary. Some, and I got the vinyl. - Yeah. - And I had it and I woke up in the middle of the night. I smoked some weed and put it on. And it was like three in the morning. - Man of mystery. - Did any messages come to you? Did you receive anything? - Oh my God, it was amazing. - Yeah, it was amazing. I started crying. I get it in a happy tears. Not even like I was feeling anything. I was just like, oh, this is good. This is what I'm supposed to be doing right now. - Yeah, Pink Floyd really speaks from a space that we don't really talk about enough as society. They really came from a heart place that was a little bit like desolate and beautiful. It's just a part of the human being. We don't really acknowledge that much. But I think we get through it through Pink Floyd. (upbeat music) - I know who that is. (upbeat music) - Prince, that's a guitar song too, right? - Say what? - Guitar. - Yeah. Shredder. - Shredder, you shredder. - I heard that Prince went to a metal guitarist night. It was a competition for best shredder, you know. Prince comes through the back door, gets up there, shreds, wins, leaves. He didn't even want the award. He just went to show. And that's kind of guy he was. Multi-instrumentalist. I'm talking about master multiple instruments. Gone too soon. - He could easily like go Van Halen style it, but if he wanted to, and he just, that's just in the back. - He could do anything. He can make any type of record. I'm gonna listen to it. I'm gonna be schooled by it. I think Prince is one of the masters that came down the earth. To not only teach us about funk but remind us of the tradition of music before us. But also to remind us of musicians to keep pushing the envelope further. - I got a good one. ♪ Thank you my health and yeah ♪ ♪ Put a love in your heart ♪ - It's so good. - Who we got right there? - Jackie Deschanan. - Jackie Deschanan. I didn't know who that's who did that song. She got a beautiful voice. - Someone from the do-op. - World Raspi. - Textural. - I like it. - It's just an amazing song. - Oh, it's a beautiful song. ♪ And a world would be a better place ♪ ♪ And a world would be a better place ♪ ♪ For you, for you ♪ - Have you ever done that? - No, but I should. I should do an all-positive set. Where it's just all the positive songs in the world as one set and see how that feels. - What are you doing right now? - I just interviewed. (laughs) - What are you doing this summer? - I'm going on tour. I'm going to the UK. I'm going to Portugal. And then I'll be back here. - Stateside. - Coming to city near you. - Good. - Hell yeah. - It was so nice to meet you. - It was great to meet you. - That was amazing. - Yeah, this was fun. Thanks for having me. (laughs) ♪ But I love you more ♪ ♪ You see us getting late ♪